The good weather is here, and summer is finally on its way even though summer won’t officially start until June 20th. Plus, we have the lowest tides of the year right now so lots to do either on the water or next to it.
As we said last week, plenty of rainfall, and as of today we’ve had 1.1” compared to a an average of .34”. 1.1” is also more than we usually get for the entire month. Needless to say, we need every bit of rainfall we can get to help hold down the wildfire season. The SW USA is already experiencing a heat dome with record high temps and it will at some point work its way north into the Pac NW. Get ready.
The combination of today’s surface analysis, sat pic and 500MB charts provide a great overview of these ideal conditions. The surface analysis chart may show a weak, unstable Pacific High at 1021MB with a weak secondary high at 1024MB over the BC interior. Then directly weak of us we have a very solid low-pressure system (980MB) with an attached frontal system that also shows up on today’s Sat Pic. Luckily, the combination of the two high-pressure systems and the jet stream curving north at about 140W before coming ashore in SE Alaska, see the 500MB Chart. This will keep our weather lovely for the weekend and keep the high temps at or above normal.
The 500MB chart for the 1th of June also shows why temps will begin to moderate early next week as the jet stream becomes more zonal and begins to move south, coming ashore on the Olympic Peninsula. Nothing ugly, we’ll just drop from near 80 on Saturday to the upper 60’s for the work week.
Unfortunately, if you’re sailing this weekend, in Puget Sound breezes will be light until mid to late afternoon both days when a diurnally driven northerly will gradually fill down the Sound. The only place with breeze will be the Strait of JdF which will have the potential for gale warnings in the afternoons of both days with westerlies of 20-30 knots.
For R2AK which starts at 0500hrs on Sunday in Port Townsend, the sail-powered vessels will definitely have the advantage as they should make it to Victoria before it really gets ugly. The human-powered craft may have to once again camp at Dungeness until conditions aren’t quite so punishing.
These conditions will be compounded by the big tides of the day. Even at 0500hrs there will still be a westerly of 5-10 knots with a flood tide that won’t ease until around 0630hrs. Then the big ebb of the day will get going into a building westerly. That is a formula for nasty!
Enjoy and respect our waters, be careful out there as they are still cold. Wear your sunblock and have a great weekend.
Bruce has raced and cruised the Pacific Northwest his entire life. He earned a Bachelor’s of Science from the University of Washington in Biological Oceanography and learned meteorology “to keep from getting kicked around on the race course.” Bruce spent nearly two decades as Associate Publisher for Northwest Yachting Magazine, retiring in mid-2015, and was the chairman of the board of trustees for the Northwest Marine Trade Association in 2014. (photo of Bruce driving Playstation is a bit dated, but cool)